This paper is from Session 5F: Bridging the gap between current statistical practice in the workplace and modern statistics

which comes under Topic 5: Statistics education in the disciplines and the workplace

Once were warriors: the need of re-education in mathematics and computing for life “scientisticians”

Presenter

• Jorge Navarro Alberto (Independent University of Yucatán, Mexico)

Abstract

This paper discusses the pros and cons of the new computing era and the status of mathematics in Life Sciences in relation to the training in statistics a life scientist is expected to have. Reflections are made about how preferences in the use of software and the topics taught nowadays in mathematics at University level have mined the creative abilities of the life scientists whenever data analysis is an on due task. Contrasts of the Mathematics and Computing taught in the pre-GUI era and the paradoxically diminishing influence of these scientific subjects at present times are given. Examples of the powerful computing concepts and the ubiquitous computing resources useful for the data analyst and avenues of opportunity of applications of mathematical ideas are also presented, in order to make suggestions in the curricula that respond to the changing demands of what life scientists are expected to do.